


My Words on Your Skin

by Anonymous



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 10:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9381344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Newt's finds his first words written on Tina's wrist, but her second set of words are so unremarkable they could be anyone's. Newt has the advantage of not having yet met anyone Tina knows, but she's still completely stunned when it's Percival Graves who asks Newt again:who are you?





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the kinkmeme prompt [here](http://fantasticbeasts-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/1184.html?thread=1629856#cmt1629856):  
> I've seen PLENTY of soulmate au prompts on here but none with a triad so lets have some good old fashioned "why do I have two phrases on me instead of one" shenanigans huh?
> 
> lets see Tina and Graves NOT EVEN KNOW AT FIRST bc their phrases for each other are SUPER VAGUE, Percival's been called "Director Graves?" SO MANY TIMES, Tina's been told "Goldstein, you're with Smith and Jenkins" AT LEAST fifty times, by TEN different people
> 
> meanwhile Newt and Tina know immediately, but it kinda takes a backseat to the whole no-maj, escaped beasts, on the run, obscurus, defeating Grindelwald thing. when it settles down, they're finally like "are we? is yours?" and yep, find out, shit, they have a third, but /who is it/?
> 
> its not until Percival's found over a week later and they visit him in the hospital that Newt's the one to realize, holy shit, here he is, and Tina didn't even know? Tina what the hell? and Tina and Graves are both like WAIT WHAT? SOULMATES? US? BUT BUT
> 
> and then happily ever after, yay, confetti~

"Who are you?" the woman says quite loudly, and Newt bites his lip and looks away, a little curious and more than a little annoyed.

"Ah, I'm sorry," he says, and as she opens her mouth, quickly offers: "Newt Scamander."

"What?" She lets go of his arm, startled, and Newt glances at her as her eyebrows furrow. "Wait, Newt Scamander?" Her hand goes to her wrist, where she has a smart leather band wrapped around her pulse point, and Newt offers her the twitch of a smile and lifts his own, awkwardly. "No, that doesn't matter right now - did you even obliviate that No-Maj?"

"No-Maj?" Newt asks, confused, and things only get worse from there.

Still, Newt can't help but wonder about it when they're sitting down to dinner, when he's trying to ignore Queenie and Jacob making eyes at each other over the table. Tina flicks him glances, sometimes, her expression a little lost when she looks at his wrist, and Newt wonders if it really is his words, his name, written indelibly on her wrist. He wonders if she has another set of words, too. 

"Oh!" Queenie exclaims, eyes wide as she looks at him, and Newt quickly drops his gaze to his plate. "Teenie, why - " and the sisters have a harsh non-verbal argument there, with Queenie's occasional " - but - "

Newt hurriedly rises to his feet, and the sound of the chair on the floor makes them both stop and stare at him. "I - I'm quite tired," he says, "it's been a very long day, but thank you for the food, it was lovely - "

Jacob rescues him, thankfully. Newt's sure they'll have time to talk about it later.

It's still an exhausting two days away when Tina finally sighs and drags Newt aside, her hand on her wristband. "So," she starts, "I think you probably know already, but," and she holds her wrist out to him, palm-up. There's Newt's words, his apology and his name, and just below that, a stark _Goldstein_ with no other clues.

"Ah," says Newt, "you have another too, that's good, that's - " and at Tina's slowly-rising eyebrows, he flushes and fumbles his own band off his wrist. Tina's _who are you?_ is there, and another, exactly the same, below it. Tina stares at it, her cheeks pinking.

"Mercy Lewis, two of the same?" she says. "Sorry I was a little abrupt there, but - you were breaking the law, Newt."

"It's all right," Newt says, "It all worked out in the end didn't it? And, well," Newt offers, glancing at her through his hair, "I've made it a habit to respond to it with my name, and - I haven't found anyone else, yet."

"Oh, good," Tina sighs, visibly relaxing. "I've had so many people say 'Goldstein' to me it's, uh, not someone I ever expected to find. Though I have to say," she adds, smiling, "I spent a lot of Ilvermorny wondering what sort of name 'Newt' was."

Newt smiles back, caught by the gentleness of her eyes. "It's not a bad name," he says.

"No," Tina says, "no, it's really not."

They smile at each other for a moment longer. Newt can't hold her gaze for very long, not with her intense, searching stare, and he fixes his gaze on the fall of her hair, wonders if she wants - well, they're marked for one another, but it doesn't mean everything in this day-and-age. He wets his lips, starts, "Do you - " just as Tina says, "Can I - " and they both break off with a laugh.

"You first," Newt says, and Tina smiles up at him.

"Can I kiss you?"

Startled, Newt fumbles, "I - ah, well, I mean, I - guess... so?" Tina's stepped closer, practically cornering him in the alley, and Newt's reminded of seeing her for the first time. Except this time she's right there, the look on her face determined, and Newt barely has room to breathe before she does kiss him, and all his thoughts for the moment fly away.

When she pulls back she looks pleased, a satisfied glint in her eyes and a warm flush to her cheeks. Newt reaches out, tucks a stray hair behind her ear, and she says, "Well, I suppose you'll do."

"I'll do?" Newt says, with mock indignation, and she laughs, tucking her hand into his offered elbow. "Is that all?"

"You could use some practice," Tina says, smiling. "I wonder who our third is? It'll be up to them to tell us, I guess."

"Perhaps someone you work with?" Newt suggests, and is a little startled by the way Tina suddenly pinks and drops her head. "Oh, do you have someone in mind?"

"No," she says with a laugh, "just a silly thought. I'm sure we'll find them, anyway. Let's hurry - if we're too far behind Queenie won't let me hear the end of it."

Still, Tina gradually takes Newt to meet all her old-and-new co-workers, most of who have welcomed her back to the Auror ranks with open arms. Newt gets one or two, "And who's this?" remarks, complete with waggling eyebrows or suggestive tones, and each time he flushes and gives his name. Each time, Tina looks - a little relieved.

And Newt's itching, too, to head back to London. They'd taken a weekend to go down to Arizona, and he'd taken immense pleasure in Tina's awestruck appreciation of Frank, of the way Frank made a low, purring sound at her touch. But that means Newt's business here is all-but-done, and Newt has a meeting with his publisher he's been putting off for weeks now. 

By the third miserable-looking owl that's flown all the way across the Atlantic, Tina says, "If you need to go, you should go," and Newt looks over at her, startled.

"I don't want to," he starts, but she shakes her head, smiling slightly.

"You've got a job," she says, "so do I. It's not like you're telling me to stop being an Auror, you know."

"I don't see why I would," Newt says, confused, and she huffs a laugh, patting his hand in a condescending way that makes him twist his wrist and catch her palm in his. "Do you really - not mind?"

"Of course not," she says, smile gentling, "but for Merlin's sake, please make sure you've got all your creatures with you this time."

That's certainly more than a job. Newt finally manages to catch his Niffler, previously lost in the bowels of MACUSA, in the cafeteria, and it's there that he holds the rascal up by his feet and tickles him until a million shiny objects come pouring out - but when one of them hits the pile, it turns into a full-sized person.

Newt yelps and jumps back, and if he'd already gotten the entire Auror division's attention with his Niffler he has even more of it now as they rush forward in an absolute clamour, all sense of order lost. Newt retreats a few steps and gives his Niffler a disbelieving look. The Niffler stares back.

Tina catches his arm a few moments later, says, "I'll tell you about it later - you won't be in trouble, don't worry. The Director!" She shakes her head, looking amazed, and it's then Newt realises the gaunt, long-haired man on the pile of stolen paraphenalia is the real Percival Graves.

The whole business keeps Tina increasingly busy, and Newt doesn't see much of her as he books his tickets home. "I'm on guard duty full-time for the next few days," she says, sounding harrassed. "I'm sorry, Newt."

"I could come see you before I go," Newt suggests, and startled, she smiles at him.

"That'd be great," she says, "and, well. Maybe you could come meet Director Graves, too."

Newt gives her a curious look, but she's turned away, busying herself with the plates from the kitchen; when he glances at Queenie, she's frowning, looking a little worried. "It's all right," Queenie says, to Newt's unspoken question, "now you have to have an opinion on my pie and strudel by now! Which one would you like?"

"I - I really don't mind," Newt says, awkwardly, and Queenie purses her lips but nods, still glancing worriedly at Tina who's pointedly ignoring her.

He doesn't understand what they're not saying, at least until two days later when he meets Tina in the morning, stationed at the hospital and in the middle of an argument with her co-worker: " - gotten over your crush yet, Goldstein?" says the man, leering, and Tina's face, miserable and flushed, sends Newt stepping in.

"I really don't think that's any of your business," he says, voice sharp, and the other Auror - Roberts, Newt thinks - raises his hands, still smirking.

"Hey, hey, it's all right," he says. "Goldstein knows I don't mean anything by it."

"Goldstein," Tina says, "can talk for herself, and I think you're an ass."

Newt looks at her sideways, her hand on her wand and nearly spitting sudden fury, and says, "Ah, Tina? Maybe not..."

She deflates a bit, but says, "Roberts, I hope you remember you're on probation."

"Oh, screw you," Roberts grumbles, but he seems cowed. "What, is your boytoy here for a send-off? Never seen you so pissed before, Goldstein."

"My 'boytoy'," Tina snaps, "was pivotal in the capture of Grindelwald _and_ finding Director Graves - who we're going to visit now, thank you very much."

She drags Newt into the hallway and slams the door behind them, and then sags against the wall. "Merlin," she moans, "I can't believe I just did that - "

"He deserved it," Newt says stoutly, and she glances at him and smiles, just a bit.

"Thanks," she says, "but this is my job, you know? And," she adds, quieter, "uh, I - he wasn't, really, completely wrong." Tina scrubs a hand over her face. "He's just, striking, you know? I think half the secretarial pool is in love with him, I'm such a cliche - "

Newt bites his lip, reaches out to put his hand on her arm. Her smile is a little wry. "It's fine," Newt says, quietly. "I - you know I still keep a - a picture of Leta in my suitcase, I'm hardly one to talk."

"Yeah," Tina says, "but still?" She sighs and rolls her eyes at herself, straightening her jacket and blouse. "Well, now that I've dragged you in here, you might as well meet the guy. Don't worry, he's not as scary as he seems."

"What a resounding ovation," Newt says, to see her smile again as she slides open the door to the room.

Percival Graves is sitting in a hospital bed, flicking absently through a newspaper, and devoid of Grindelwald's menace Newt thinks Tina is right: he is rather striking. "Goldstein," he says, his gaze drawn to the door, and Tina makes a high-pitched squeak of a noise and shoves Newt forward, stumbling. Graves's eyebrows creep up his forehead, and to Newt he says, "Who are you?"

Tina, at his back, suddenly freezes. Newt says, stumbling over his words, "Ah, hello, Mr. Graves, I'm Newt - Newt Scamander?" He manages a glance at Graves, but can't read his impenetrable expression. "I, ah, it's nice to meet you - the real you, I mean, you might have heard that it was my Niffler who found you and I'm very sorry about that, really, he's quite incorrigible - "

"Newt Scamander," Graves says, and Newt, relieved, closes his mouth quickly. "I've heard quite a bit about you from your brother."

"Theseus?" Newt says, startled. Graves is smiling, just a bit, and Tina behind him still hasn't made a sound. "Oh, he likes to - exaggerate things, you know."

"Well," Graves says, and holds out his arm, the one Newt can't stop his gaze following down to the band over his wrist. "I suppose I need to thank you for your part in my rescue - and your Niffler, of course. Let me guess, you've heard 'who are you' more than a hundred times in your life - "

Tina makes a sound at that, a quick, shocked exhale. Newt glances at her and then Graves looks at her and his fingers pause on his wristband.

"Ah," Newt says, "less than you'd think, actually, considering I have it written on me twice."

Newt fumbles with his own wristband as Graves says, slowly, "You've met them?"

"Yes," Newt says, and glances at Tina, who has her hands over her mouth, looking startlingly pale. "Um. Here."

Crossing the few steps between them, Newt shoves his bare wrist out, but Graves's gaze is flicking between him and Tina, a very odd expression starting to form on his face. "Goldstein," he says.

"Y-yes, sir," Tina says, a little too high-pitched. "I - I really had no idea, sir, I swear - "

"Goldstein," Graves says, and pinches the bridge of his nose, looking down at Newt's wrist with complete bemusement. "Did you never get the 'first words' talk?"

"Didn't you, sir?" Tina says, and Newt sighs and reaches back to grab her arm, pulling her forward. "Newt - "

"No," Newt says, "no, I have two 'who are you''s and you both have my name - " and Graves does, a dense little paragraph of Newt's rambling that makes Newt flush, just below a very bland _Sir_ , " - then it's all right, isn't it?"

"I just can't believe," Graves says, still sounding bemused. "How long have you been working in the Department, Goldstein?"

"T-ten years, sir," Tina says. "And - I've had dozens of people call me by my last name the first time we meet."

"And how many times do you think I've been called sir?" Graves asks dryly. "Dear Merlin, if Mr. Scamander hadn't come along..."

Newt can feel his face warm under Graves's regard. "It's Newt, please," he says.

"Then you should call me Percival," Graves says, and raises his eyebrows at Tina, who stares back, eyes narrowed. "Don't get any ideas, Goldstein, you're still my subordinate." He exhales, says, "I suppose I should get you transferred - "

"I _like_ being an Auror, sir," Tina says sharply, "you can't just take that away from me - "

"Please," Newt says, a little helplessly, "Tina's a great Auror, Percival, aren't there - clauses about matches here, I know we have them in Britain, or..."

Graves looks at him, and Newt holds his gaze for a moment before he has to look away. "You'll get questions, Goldstein," Graves says to Tina, who makes a face.

"Honestly, sir, I'll get questions anyway," she says. "It's not like anything stays a secret in the Department, you know. And," she adds, glancing at Newt, who offers her a tentative, reassuring smile, "my name's Tina."

"Porpentina, wasn't it?" Graves says, and his mouth quirks at Tina's disgusted noise. "I'll look into it."

"Thank you," Tina says quietly, and Graves sighs, shaking his head.

"We're a match, aren't we?" He reaches out, covers Newt's hand on Tina's wrist with his own. "Ten years," he mutters, and Tina, startled, laughs.

"I - I think we brought it on ourselves, sir," she says, and he smiles at her, at Newt, biting his lip and trying not to look too invested. "But - we have a chance, now."

"Ah," Newt says, awkwardly, "well, I can probably cancel my steamship ticket - "

"Oh!" Tina blinks at him, worry twisting her mouth. "Newt, are you sure? You said you had to - "

Newt says, "Well, I should, but..."

"You can come back," Tina says. "Director Graves - I mean, Mr. Graves - "

"Percival," Graves repeats, amused.

"P-Percival," Tina corrects herself, stumbling over the name a little, cheeks pinking. "We'll still be here. You said you could come back for your manuscript writing, right?"

Newt looks at her for a moment, at the honest concern in her eyes, and then curiously at Graves, who looks rather bemused at the interchange. "You're returning to London?" he asks, and Newt nods.

"If - if you don't mind," he says, encompassing them both, and Tina smiles, squeezing his hand.

"We'll be fine," she says, and raises her eyebrows pointedly at Graves, who raises his eyebrows right back.

"We won't kill each other," Graves says, "that's all I can promise."

"Well," says Newt, "that's probably enough," and Tina's amused smile makes him lean forward, noses bumping, to press a chaste kiss to her mouth. When he pulls back he realises Graves is watching them, still and almost smiling. Newt worries his lower lip between his teeth and says, "If you don't mind - "

"No," says Graves, and Newt kisses him, too.

 

It's two long weeks before Newt comes back, to Tina and Percival's friendly bickering in the kitchen, to a warm bed and bare wrists with his words scrawled indelibly, and - well. It might just be home.


End file.
